Few Pastors Now Cite Burnout for Leaving Roles
The steady bleed of pastors leaving their jobs over burnout appears to have ebbed. A new survey finds the vast majority of Protestant pastors are remaining in ministry despite many of them having considered leaving since the pandemic. The new research was conducted by Lifeway Research and found just 1.2 percent of pastors have left their jobs for reasons other than retirement or death this year.
Not just about pastors and burnout
“The rate of pastors departing the pastorate is steady and quite low given the demands of the role,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “Many of those leaving the pastorate feel they are moving at God’s direction to another role of ministry. However, it’s easy for those outside and those inside the church to fixate on those who leave because of conflict, burnout or moral failure. Speculation always overstates these cases, yet these are the outcomes churches can seek to prevent.”
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More than half of the pastors surveyed said they started their current roles within the last decade, while 15 percent have served in their pulpit for at least 25 years. More than half said they were serving in their first pastoral role, while the remaining 48 percent served at a previous church. For pastors who left their jobs in the past decade, 7 percent took on a different ministry role, and 3 percent reported working in a non-ministry role. About a quarter are pastoring another church.
Pastors offered a variety of reasons for why their predecessors left the ministry, including change in calling (37 percent), conflict in a church (23 percent) and burnout (22 percent). Twelve percent cited family issues. Other reasons given for why predecessors walked away from ministry were poor church fit (17 percent), illness (5 percent) and personal finances, 3 percent.
“Today’s pastors don’t always know all the reasons their predecessors left their church, but the number of pastors describing the previous pastor at their church leaving because of burnout has doubled over the last 10 years (22 percent vs. 10 percent),” McConnell said.
Covid did a number on pastors
An October 2021 Barna survey showed that nearly four in 10 pastors said they were “seriously considering” leaving full-time ministry, a significant increase from the 29 percent of pastors who reported feeling this way in January 2021.
In 2022, some Christian denominations, such as the progressive, LGBT-affirming Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, reported that they were already in the throes of a succession crisis with a national shortage of at least 600 pastors. When the data were broken down further into mainline and non-mainline pastors, it revealed that 51 percent of mainline pastors were “seriously considering” leaving full-time ministry and one-third of non-mainline pastors reported feeling this way about their jobs.
While the numers are encouraging, churches are encouraged to have systems in place to check on the mental well-being of their leadership. They also need mental health resources in place.
–Alan Goforth
